Call prioritization based upon location is becoming increasingly important. For example, time is money for many people, and dealing with phone calls or other messages takes time. Being able to route calls to alternate services, e.g., voice mail, on various criteria is becoming important to help control the effort expended on low-value communication.
Salespersons who cover large territories, business executives, and other mobile professionals may have preferences about callers with whom they wish to spend time that are dependent on where the mobile professional and the caller are located. Urgency of a mobile-generated call may be affected by the location of the caller. A mobile subscriber may not want to receive any low-priority calls while driving at high speed. Prior art wireless communication systems have not provided adequate solutions to such prioritization problems.
Thus, what is needed is a method for prioritizing a communication in a wireless communication system. Preferably, the method will allow prioritization based upon the relative locations of the caller and the intended recipient, further based upon the location of a calling portable unit, and further based upon the speed at which an intended portable recipient is moving.